I’m trying a new plug-in, which requires you to do basic math before posting a comment. I’m hoping this will stop the influx of spam, and allow me to go back to not having to hold comments in queue before they appear. Math is, after all, scary. ๐
Spam be-gone!
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Kelly,
Have you tried the Akismet spam filter?
Seems to work so far for me. Although my blog is really new it has caught a couple spam.
http://akismet.com/
I would be curious to know how well this math filter works for you. Machines are really good at math, and it seems to me that it might not be that hard for a spambot to parse the text and provide the answer to this question if you keep the basic sentence structure consistent. You may want to consider an option that randomly or dynamically changes the sentence structure. e.g.:
What is the sum of 9 and 1?
The sum of 9 and 1 is?
Take 9 add it to 1 what do you get?
etc.
Even then keywords like “add”, “substract”, etc, plus the numbers might be all that a clever bot would need to make an effective attempt to post spam.
If that is the case, you may need to sprinkle in a misleading question.
“I am going to say add but I really want you to subtract 9 from 1.”
Also, I read about this interesting new Kitten Authentication scheme the other day. Interesting idea.
Oh, you have way too much faith in my ability to code things. I just found a WordPress plugin… ๐
Since I report to several of the blogrolling places automagically upon post, I do have a habit of getting slammed with spam once or twice a week. I’m pleased to note that since I dropped this plugin, er, in, the spam has disappeared. Thank Ananda!